Pixie Class

Pixies are the Foundation Stage (Reception) class at North Cadbury. We follow the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) - a broad, flexible curriculum that allows us to provide the children with opportunities to learn at the level they need at the speed they require. The focus of Pixies class is to do a lot of self-initiated learning through play. We choose a story or a topic, such as 'dinosaurs' or 'travel', and decide what we want to learn about that subject. The children are provided with a range of Continuous Provision activities, carefully planned to ensure that every child has the opportunity to take the next steps in their learning through play and more structured activities where appropriate. We teach phonics skills (for reading and writing) daily for 20 minutes, and also offer many activities to encourage children to read and write during their self-initiated activities. Maths is taught using a combination of practical, playful activities to embed the basic concepts of number and calculation, backed up by daily input of 20 minutes where the children explore number, calculation, shape space and measure as a group. As with Literacy skills, every opportunity is taken to play games, sing songs tell stories and share rhymes to further embed basic skills. The important skills of Personal and Social development run through everything that we do, and in keeping with the Christian ethos of the school, we celebrate the wheel of the year, taking every opportunity to prepare and celebrate festivals such as Easter, harvest and Christmas. We have a relaxed 'stay and play session where the children can show their loved ones what they have been up to. For children joining the school, it provides a lovely transition into the class as it means they are already familiar with the school and the teachers before starting in September. The goal of Pixies class is for children feel happy and secure, and provide them with a firm foundation from which to move into Year 1. We want them to enjoy coming in every morning and to be proud of themselves and their learning.

Early Years MathsFantastic activities to challenge a wide range of mathematical areas. Articles about developing children’s Maths are also interesting and thought provoking to read.